Indiana's May Jobs Report: Manufacturing Added Just 200 Jobs

Indiana's May unemployment rate came in at 3.3 percent, but manufacturing added only 200 jobs, fifth among all sectors, while construction absorbed 1,800 and leisure and hospitality added 1,700. Factory floors are losing the worker-absorption competition to construction and services at the exact moment reshoring demand should be filling shop floors.

The structural driver: Hoosier manufacturing wages ran roughly $30 an hour versus about $35 nationally as of mid-2025, around 85 percent of the national rate. That's the same skilled-trades pool, millwrights, electricians, welders, Evonik's modernization will draw on for the next 18 to 36 months. If your wages sit 15 percent below the national rate, close that gap before your open reqs sit unfilled another quarter.